Various computer-based electronic devices utilize different operating systems to manage operations of the electronic devices. The different operating systems, in turn, may invoke different file systems to manage storage space. For example, Linux-based operating systems frequently utilize a file system referred to as an “ext3” file system. Other operating systems, such as for example some Windows®-based operating system, do not recognize the ext3 file system. Therefore, drives which are formatted by an ext3 file system are not accessible to the Windows®-based operating system.
The term Network Attached Storage (NAS) refers to a dedicated data storage device(s) connected directly to a computer network to provide centralized data access and storage services to one or more network clients such as, e.g., a personal computer. Some NAS devices provide the ability to back-up data on the NAS device to an external drive. When a NAS device which utilizes a particular operating system, for example a Linux-based operating system, is used to format an external drive, the external drive may not be readable by a computing device that uses a different operating system, for example a windows-based operating system.